Welcome Dr. Bonnie Danqing ZHU to CBE
Dr. Bonnie Danqing ZHU will join the CBE department as an Assistant Professor starting on 1st Feb 2023.
She is currently a California Institute for Regenerative Medicine Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Prof. David Schaffer at the University of California, Berkeley, working on the development of machine-learning guided approach to design viral vectors for therapeutic applications. She completed her B.S. in Engineering Science at the University of Virginia and obtained her Ph. D. in Bioengineering from Stanford University whilst working with Prof. Fan Yang and Prof. Sarah Heilshorn to develop novel biomaterials and in vitro models of tissue regeneration that capture the dynamic cell-extracellular matrix interactions. Her research background is highly interdisciplinary and spans across related fields of materials science, protein engineering, gene therapy, neuroscience, and machine learning.
She has a technologist’s mindset and is keen on building platforms and toolkits to address multiple challenges. Her approach to designing the next-generation viral delivery system by combining machine learning and directed evolution is innovative and has the potential to improve future gene therapeutics. After joining HKUST, she plans to employ protein engineering, materials chemistry, and computational biology approaches to develop safe and targeted molecular medicine in the context of neuro-immune modulation, with treatment applications in neurological disorders.
Welcome Dr. ZHU to the CBE community!
About The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) (https://hkust.edu.hk/) is a world-class research intensive university that focuses on science, technology and business as well as humanities and social science. HKUST offers an international campus, and a holistic and interdisciplinary pedagogy to nurture well-rounded graduates with global vision, a strong entrepreneurial spirit and innovative thinking. Over 80% of our research work were rated “Internationally excellent” or “world leading” in the Research Assessment Exercise 2020 of Hong Kong’s University Grants Committee. We were ranked 3rd in Times Higher Education’s Young University Rankings 2022, and our graduates were ranked 23rd worldwide and among the best from universities from Asia in Global Employability University Ranking and Survey 2021.
